right breast lumpectomy/clear nodes-margins.what do i do?
Comments
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I know this a confusing
I know this a confusing time, but I have to say, I would NEVER have a lumpectomy and then blow off chemo and especially not rads. Its the radiation that makes a lumpectomy as good as a mastectomy in terms of survival. You only took one out of 4 chemo treatments? What did your onc. say about that?
I had a lumpectomy w/clear margins and nodes and absolutely never considered not finishing all treatment even for a minute. Why would you trade a 5% chance of recurrence for 50%???
The risk of long-term side effects such as luekemia, heart damage, other cancers etc... are very, very slim----google it or ask your doctor for the statistics.0 -
OH, MY!
I agree--you must at least do radiation. Do you drive or ride in a car? What are your chances of being involved in a wreck? Probably pretty high, yet we all do it. I think I would rather take my chances of having some side effects, even another cancer than to just not do anything.0 -
the rads were 50 to 5 %Eil4186 said:I know this a confusing
I know this a confusing time, but I have to say, I would NEVER have a lumpectomy and then blow off chemo and especially not rads. Its the radiation that makes a lumpectomy as good as a mastectomy in terms of survival. You only took one out of 4 chemo treatments? What did your onc. say about that?
I had a lumpectomy w/clear margins and nodes and absolutely never considered not finishing all treatment even for a minute. Why would you trade a 5% chance of recurrence for 50%???
The risk of long-term side effects such as luekemia, heart damage, other cancers etc... are very, very slim----google it or ask your doctor for the statistics.
well the doctor didn't say anything, he just sent me to the radiation dr. the chemo was a cytoxin ,taxetere(sorry about the spelling)combo. i ended up dehydrated eventhough i was drinking alot of water, the meds kept me from nausea and i ate .i ended up with impacted small intestins and spent 6 days in misery,takeing everything i could to try to go to the bathroom. my main thing i guess is i really believe in our bodies ability to take care of things and if we start putting poisin in it how does it make it better. please don't get me wrong, i have a strong family history of cancer, and i have seen it both ways i guess thats why i'm confused. my grandmother had colon cancer,she took no treatments it returned they removed it ,no treatments ,she lived to be 83 and didn't die of cancer. my mom had colon cancer, she took only 3 or 4 chemo treatments then quit, she's 17 years clear. my dad had throut cancer, he had chemo ,rads,it came back he had more chemo and rads ,he lived 7 years but most of it in treatments and pain. so you see i know these are different kinds,but it just seems that maybe treatments aren't always best, thats why i'm confused, i just feel like i'm fine and i'm going to make things worse or do something else that may be worse. i'd like to hear all the advice i can get. is there anyone who did'nt do all this and is ok?0 -
i'm just confusedjakeca said:OH, MY!
I agree--you must at least do radiation. Do you drive or ride in a car? What are your chances of being involved in a wreck? Probably pretty high, yet we all do it. I think I would rather take my chances of having some side effects, even another cancer than to just not do anything.
i've been reading all these blogs with all these treatments and medicines with all these bad side effects. i just don't know how to feel. some say do what i feel is best for me,well i say i am fine and if it comes back i'll remove it all , some say do everything they say even if you end up with more stuff wrong with you, i am a mess right now, i wish i would have had the breast removed they said then i wouldn't have had to do anything else.0 -
radiation is not bad at allloveline said:i'm just confused
i've been reading all these blogs with all these treatments and medicines with all these bad side effects. i just don't know how to feel. some say do what i feel is best for me,well i say i am fine and if it comes back i'll remove it all , some say do everything they say even if you end up with more stuff wrong with you, i am a mess right now, i wish i would have had the breast removed they said then i wouldn't have had to do anything else.
radiation is not bad at all compared to chemo. I had partial breast radiation-----2 tratments a day for 5 days. It was fine. In order to qualify for this you must be stage 1 or 2 with clear nodes and margins. Ask your doc about this.
Yeah maybe your grandma got lucky but you can't go by that. Cancer is sneaky and evil. You don't want to wind up with metastasis. Then you will be in treatment for the rest of your life. Why would you want to roll the dice like that? Cancer is a very serious disease and you must treat it that way.0 -
breast cancer
i too had a lumpectomy and my margines and lymph were clear..,mine was stage 2 but aggressive. i also had the 5 day 2x a day radation called a mammosite. they put a balloon in the spot where the tumor was. the dr said i didn't need the chemo but put me on a chemo pill once a day...sense mine was harmone aggressive i have to have a harmone blocker...it called arimidex. its a 1 milgram tablet i take once a day. mine too was on the right side it was 4 cm. i still go every month right now for checks but so far i am good. the side effects were mimmanil a little nausa and i fixed that by eating when i took the pill. i don't underdtand if it was so small and all why the reg chemo.... good luck kkeep us informed. but if it was bad enough to have it removed then you would defenitly need chemo..this is nothing to play around with. it could cost you your life its something you really need to think about...0 -
thanks
thank you this is helping. my tumor was 3 cm my stage was 2, i have learnd most of what i know from reading and this site. i was not offered any other rads options. i'll ask about this .it sounds less damageing than the 33 treatments. i will have to take a hormone blocker after rads. tamoxifen or femara.i am 43 and have beautiful daughters and grandchildren, i plan to live a long life and yes i will do what is nessasary to do it, i'm just unsure of what doctors have to offer.i'm sure they are doing there best it just seems wrong to me to make people sicker to make them better. fight one thing and end up with another. does anyone else feel that way.maybe i've just read to much .lol
ps they said i would only go every 6 months after treatment,mammograms first,then some other test six months later. is this right.0 -
Reading up on treatments is good. I also deal with the uncertainty of having cancer by reading and reading a lot. However, I have learned a few things over the years. First of all, the oncology field is changing so fast these days that if it is in a book, it is already out-dated even if that book is hot off the press. I trust books to explain cancer history and most of the main ideas in recent (read last 2 years) are probably okay, but it takes 2 years to print out a book and by that time the cancer treatment stuff has been updated. Also watch out of internet sites written by either non-medical people that explain their personal history with cancer treatments or by salespeople that are looking to make a buck selling the latest miracle cure. The doctors are still looking for a cure, but at least they are researching the side effects in some kind of an organized manner on populations of people rather than reporting what happened to just one person they knew. They are also getting results with their treatment programs. They have made all forms of cancer treatment more effective and less harmful to other body parts over the years. However, to get the best treatment, you have know what you are looking for and get to the doctors that offer it.loveline said:thanks
thank you this is helping. my tumor was 3 cm my stage was 2, i have learnd most of what i know from reading and this site. i was not offered any other rads options. i'll ask about this .it sounds less damageing than the 33 treatments. i will have to take a hormone blocker after rads. tamoxifen or femara.i am 43 and have beautiful daughters and grandchildren, i plan to live a long life and yes i will do what is nessasary to do it, i'm just unsure of what doctors have to offer.i'm sure they are doing there best it just seems wrong to me to make people sicker to make them better. fight one thing and end up with another. does anyone else feel that way.maybe i've just read to much .lol
ps they said i would only go every 6 months after treatment,mammograms first,then some other test six months later. is this right.
You do not say what kind of breast cancer you have. Cancer is an umbrella term that covers many different diseases each with its own treatment plan and prognosis. Throat cancer tends to be much more aggressive than colon cancer. Older folks with cancer often have less aggressive cancer than younger folks that develop the same kinds of cancer. Even within breast cancer some types are tons more aggressive than others. Some respond better to chemo, some worse. I have ER+/PR+ node negative breast cancer. They skipped chemo in my case (told me it wasn't worth the side effects for my kind of cancer) and put me on tamoxifen and then an aromatase inhibitor because my tumors were small-found in 2 places that necessitated a mastectomy-and hormone-controlled. If I had a larger tumor like yours but couldn't tolerate chemo, I would still do the radiation if I had a lumpectomy and then use the same hormone control. If I had a ER-/PR- (esp. if also an HER-) tumor, I would run for the chemo. Chemo is the only thing that is proven to work for those nasties and they tend to be much more aggressive. I have a friend that had the triple negative breast cancer who did the whole chemo and radiation bit. That took just about a year to finish and she taught the entire time missing only 2 days of work the whole year. She is still doing well and her cancer was first diagnosed in 2001. Another friend with inflamatory breast cancer figured she survived an extra two years (a total of 4 years from first diagnosis) thanks to the positive effects of chemo on her extremely rotten sort of disease. Her's had a doubling rate of every 27 days and that's a really bad sign by itself and her nodes were positive from the get go. But thanks to a variety of drugs the oncologists used, she stayed active right up to the last 2 1/2 weeks and lived much longer than expected, even by the doctors themselves.
I know this a decision you have to make by yourself, but if terms in the paragraph above are even a little bit confusing, you might want to talk to a different breast cancer oncologist and get his or her take on what your prognosis is with and without treatment. Second opinions can be very valuable. If the difference is only a year, maybe 6-8 months on chemo isn't worth it. If the difference is 5 years, maybe it is. Only you can decide and you need more information to go on.
C. Abbott0 -
Loveline..
I had a lumpectomy with clear margins. My MRI showed nothing new. My tumor was .8 centimeters and I am considered Stage 1. I am currently in radiation treatments. I am to have 37 total..25 to the whole area and 12 boosters to the tumor site. The radiation is to clean up and kill any stray cells that are left behind. I was told that with any tumor over 2cm that chemo was highly and stongly recommended. You might want to get a second opinion, but, since you opted for a lumpectomy..you must consider radiation at the least and you really should finish chemo...in my opinion. Why would you risk your life for side effects that may not even happen? And, why would you take a 50/50 chance of cancer coming back? That makes no sense....0 -
Thanks, C. Abbottcabbott said:Reading up on treatments is good. I also deal with the uncertainty of having cancer by reading and reading a lot. However, I have learned a few things over the years. First of all, the oncology field is changing so fast these days that if it is in a book, it is already out-dated even if that book is hot off the press. I trust books to explain cancer history and most of the main ideas in recent (read last 2 years) are probably okay, but it takes 2 years to print out a book and by that time the cancer treatment stuff has been updated. Also watch out of internet sites written by either non-medical people that explain their personal history with cancer treatments or by salespeople that are looking to make a buck selling the latest miracle cure. The doctors are still looking for a cure, but at least they are researching the side effects in some kind of an organized manner on populations of people rather than reporting what happened to just one person they knew. They are also getting results with their treatment programs. They have made all forms of cancer treatment more effective and less harmful to other body parts over the years. However, to get the best treatment, you have know what you are looking for and get to the doctors that offer it.
You do not say what kind of breast cancer you have. Cancer is an umbrella term that covers many different diseases each with its own treatment plan and prognosis. Throat cancer tends to be much more aggressive than colon cancer. Older folks with cancer often have less aggressive cancer than younger folks that develop the same kinds of cancer. Even within breast cancer some types are tons more aggressive than others. Some respond better to chemo, some worse. I have ER+/PR+ node negative breast cancer. They skipped chemo in my case (told me it wasn't worth the side effects for my kind of cancer) and put me on tamoxifen and then an aromatase inhibitor because my tumors were small-found in 2 places that necessitated a mastectomy-and hormone-controlled. If I had a larger tumor like yours but couldn't tolerate chemo, I would still do the radiation if I had a lumpectomy and then use the same hormone control. If I had a ER-/PR- (esp. if also an HER-) tumor, I would run for the chemo. Chemo is the only thing that is proven to work for those nasties and they tend to be much more aggressive. I have a friend that had the triple negative breast cancer who did the whole chemo and radiation bit. That took just about a year to finish and she taught the entire time missing only 2 days of work the whole year. She is still doing well and her cancer was first diagnosed in 2001. Another friend with inflamatory breast cancer figured she survived an extra two years (a total of 4 years from first diagnosis) thanks to the positive effects of chemo on her extremely rotten sort of disease. Her's had a doubling rate of every 27 days and that's a really bad sign by itself and her nodes were positive from the get go. But thanks to a variety of drugs the oncologists used, she stayed active right up to the last 2 1/2 weeks and lived much longer than expected, even by the doctors themselves.
I know this a decision you have to make by yourself, but if terms in the paragraph above are even a little bit confusing, you might want to talk to a different breast cancer oncologist and get his or her take on what your prognosis is with and without treatment. Second opinions can be very valuable. If the difference is only a year, maybe 6-8 months on chemo isn't worth it. If the difference is 5 years, maybe it is. Only you can decide and you need more information to go on.
C. Abbott
Just wanted to pop in and tell you how glad I was to hear about your friend who survived triple negative cancer. That is what I had, and I am now finishing up chemo prior to rads. With this type of cancer, we hear such bad news most of the time; hearing about survivors is all the more encouraging. So, thanks!0 -
You really need to at least
You really need to at least take the radiation treatments. From a 50/50 to a 5%? The treatments now are sooooooooo much different and so much better than they used to be. I have never heard about the 15% lung function your doctor told you about. Is he a radiation oncologist? If not..you need to talk to one and get all of the facts. Good luck to you!0 -
cabbottcabbott said:Reading up on treatments is good. I also deal with the uncertainty of having cancer by reading and reading a lot. However, I have learned a few things over the years. First of all, the oncology field is changing so fast these days that if it is in a book, it is already out-dated even if that book is hot off the press. I trust books to explain cancer history and most of the main ideas in recent (read last 2 years) are probably okay, but it takes 2 years to print out a book and by that time the cancer treatment stuff has been updated. Also watch out of internet sites written by either non-medical people that explain their personal history with cancer treatments or by salespeople that are looking to make a buck selling the latest miracle cure. The doctors are still looking for a cure, but at least they are researching the side effects in some kind of an organized manner on populations of people rather than reporting what happened to just one person they knew. They are also getting results with their treatment programs. They have made all forms of cancer treatment more effective and less harmful to other body parts over the years. However, to get the best treatment, you have know what you are looking for and get to the doctors that offer it.
You do not say what kind of breast cancer you have. Cancer is an umbrella term that covers many different diseases each with its own treatment plan and prognosis. Throat cancer tends to be much more aggressive than colon cancer. Older folks with cancer often have less aggressive cancer than younger folks that develop the same kinds of cancer. Even within breast cancer some types are tons more aggressive than others. Some respond better to chemo, some worse. I have ER+/PR+ node negative breast cancer. They skipped chemo in my case (told me it wasn't worth the side effects for my kind of cancer) and put me on tamoxifen and then an aromatase inhibitor because my tumors were small-found in 2 places that necessitated a mastectomy-and hormone-controlled. If I had a larger tumor like yours but couldn't tolerate chemo, I would still do the radiation if I had a lumpectomy and then use the same hormone control. If I had a ER-/PR- (esp. if also an HER-) tumor, I would run for the chemo. Chemo is the only thing that is proven to work for those nasties and they tend to be much more aggressive. I have a friend that had the triple negative breast cancer who did the whole chemo and radiation bit. That took just about a year to finish and she taught the entire time missing only 2 days of work the whole year. She is still doing well and her cancer was first diagnosed in 2001. Another friend with inflamatory breast cancer figured she survived an extra two years (a total of 4 years from first diagnosis) thanks to the positive effects of chemo on her extremely rotten sort of disease. Her's had a doubling rate of every 27 days and that's a really bad sign by itself and her nodes were positive from the get go. But thanks to a variety of drugs the oncologists used, she stayed active right up to the last 2 1/2 weeks and lived much longer than expected, even by the doctors themselves.
I know this a decision you have to make by yourself, but if terms in the paragraph above are even a little bit confusing, you might want to talk to a different breast cancer oncologist and get his or her take on what your prognosis is with and without treatment. Second opinions can be very valuable. If the difference is only a year, maybe 6-8 months on chemo isn't worth it. If the difference is 5 years, maybe it is. Only you can decide and you need more information to go on.
C. Abbott
i think it is stage 2 ductal carcinoma in situ, 3cm clear margins and nodes. of the invasive type but hadn't invaded. er+/pr+ they said the chemo was only because of the size, the rads was in case there were cells that may have escaped,they told me it is precautionary,measures. the pill after because of the er/pr+. i took one chemo. and plan to take the rads, but am going to check about the balloon thing.i'm waiting on my dr. to call me back. she told my husband i could of had a mastectomy where they keep your skin and nipple and put in a prost.then i wouldn't of had to do any of this except the pill. my fault though i wasn't sure and made a quick decision before i let them explain the mastectomy in more detail.0 -
dianabquilter4 mammosite?dianabquilter4 said:breast cancer
i too had a lumpectomy and my margines and lymph were clear..,mine was stage 2 but aggressive. i also had the 5 day 2x a day radation called a mammosite. they put a balloon in the spot where the tumor was. the dr said i didn't need the chemo but put me on a chemo pill once a day...sense mine was harmone aggressive i have to have a harmone blocker...it called arimidex. its a 1 milgram tablet i take once a day. mine too was on the right side it was 4 cm. i still go every month right now for checks but so far i am good. the side effects were mimmanil a little nausa and i fixed that by eating when i took the pill. i don't underdtand if it was so small and all why the reg chemo.... good luck kkeep us informed. but if it was bad enough to have it removed then you would defenitly need chemo..this is nothing to play around with. it could cost you your life its something you really need to think about...
can you tell me more about this , are the side effects the same? do you stay in the hospital for this? they told me i would only go every 6 months after for checks.0
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